hen I was first born in Germany, I didn’t speak the language; I saw only images. Then I came to America, and, again, I didn’t speak the language and saw only images. Images became symbols of experiences: the yellow star I wore, the swastika, the different languages, the different symbols in the Hebrew language that I studied as a child, the look of the German language and the biblical type that the Germans used in their propaganda art. Reclaiming the Symbol is the attempt to confront the symbols used by the Third Reich to empower and to terrorize. The work strives to reclaim the star, the cross and the swastika to their positive use. The swastika may well be the earliest known symbol, the solar wheel, the movement and power of the sun, the origin acting upon the universe, a positive symbol before the Nazis used it. By taking the swastika apart, by deconstructing its meanings and disempowering it, I hope to change its fearful energy. In a spiritual or mystical sense, I am exorcising the evil memory of the swastika, in hopes of healing our fear.

                         -From Kunst Arbeit, State of Illinois Art Gallery, 1992